[jimborokz]

Originally Posted by Weldon

The wife and I paid $500 cash for a 1993 Skamper PUP a little over 3 years ago. We previously used a $100 walmart tent, and wanted to see if our kids would actually enjoy camping in the PUP. We let our kids help us "remodel" the PUP and used it a dozen times over the next year. I can't say cranking the PUP up and down each trip was fun, but I really appreciate the buttons on my TT!

Early last year we sold the PUP and went with our current TT. Enough can't be said for a shower, toilet, and bunkbeds for the kids. We have used our TT a dozen times over the past year and have 3 trips planned so far for this year. We will upgrade at some point, but it's not on the immediate horizon.

I may not be a "kid" anymore, but at age 43, I definitely appreciate the dollar, and the work needed to earn it. I started working when i was 14, and haven't stopped. I am by no means bragging, but I was extremely pleased to pay cash for my TV and TT. Yes, I could have financed both that were way nicer, but my TT and TV are what we need now. We are by no means wealthy, but we do pay off our CC's each month, have no car payments, and live within our means. I only say that for this reason: I hope by doing this i am teaching my kids responsible habits so they won't be "those kids" in 4 years when my daughter turns 13 and my son turns 12. God knows we have tried, but raising a kid with all the stuff going on politically, economically, etc. is no pancake.

I think your kids will do fine. You're giving them a good foundation to build on.
Our story was much like yours only 3 decades earlier. Our kids are where you are now, youngest turns 40 next year and of the three only one camps. Our 5th wheel is parked in her back yard right now. But when we are all around the fire pit on the 4th of July the conversation often gets around to those days when they were little and we were in our paid for $200 Sears pop-up at the state park with no hook ups. Their lives are all different now but they all remember the old days with fondness. It isn't the stuff they remember it's the togetherness of the family. I just sit there and listen and thank God for blessings.